The flavour of Kolkata

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Tasting Darjeeling tea and green tea from Goodricke

I have always liked my tea strong, through my transition from milk tea to black tea. So my palate has always favoured Assam tea. Darjeeling tea has never really appealed to me, its venerable global fame (especially for its aroma) notwithstanding.

Green tea is also beyond my interest area. I drink tea in a reasonably healthy form (Black, with low sugar) in moderate amount and I don’t have health issues. So, I have never felt the need for drinking it for the purpose that drives most people to go for it, i.e. weight loss, preventing cancer etc. And on the rare occasions of my sampling green tea, I found the taste awful.

A few days back, Goodricke sent me a nice-looking, small blue tin of their Castleton Premium Muscatel Darjeeling Tea and a box of Barnesbeg Green Tea along with an invitation to a tea-tasting session. I couldn’t attend the session, but was prompted to taste the teas.

The Darjeeling tea leaves were soaked in hot water for three minutes. The brew looked dark, unlike the one familiar to me, but the taste was impressive. Probably, that’s the magic of muscatel. It is difficult to put to words the taste of muscatel tea. On the net, it is described as “an elusive taste found in some Darjeeling teas, most likely second flush teas. It is very hard to describe the taste in words, but it is easy to recognize the taste once you are familiar with it”. Rajiv Lochan, owner of several tea gardens in India and CEO of Lochan Tea Ltd has remarked that muscatel is “very difficult to describe but it is something extraordinary and rare.”

To me, it was rather smooth while not being a compromise on a strong brew. It was definitely far from as strong as an Assam brew, but satisfactory enough, and paired well with the smoothness. So it can please staunch Assam tea admirers like me. There was no apparent aroma, though.

Goodricke Castleton Premium Muscatel Darjeeling Tea

Goodricke Castleton Premium Muscatel Darjeeling Tea is highly expensive, and comes at over Rs 5000 a kg approximately. A 100 gram tin costs Rs 525. However, those who love Darjeeling tea and those who like their tea strong but would like to taste Darjeeling tea and won’t mind paying some premium for it, can surely go for it.

I was less apprehensive of the Barnesbeg Green Tea as it came with a lemon flavour. But I liked the taste. The mild liquor was not bitter as green tea tastes to me and the lemon bit made it flavourful. Definitely recommended to all those who are open to having green tea but despise it because of its taste. Goodricke Barnesbeg Green Tea is healthier than the average green tea as it is completely organic.

Goodricke Barnesbeg Green Tea

#Goodricke #DarjeelingTea #MuscatelTea #GreenTea #OrganicTea

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